Caveat emptor, President Kokoity. The Kremlin moved swiftly to tighten its grip on Georgia’s breakaway regions yesterday as South Ossetia announced that it would soon become part of Russia, which will open military bases in the province under an agreement to be signed on Tuesday. Tarzan Kokoity, the province’s Deputy Speaker of parliament, announced that […]
Tag: confrontation in the caucasus
A correspondent keeps sending me groovy Russian TV clips; this one takes something of an alarmist view of the ability of a Tomahawk missile to strike targets in Russia. Of course, nothing that I’
Sevastopol: Russia’s flagship cruiser re-entered the Black Sea on Monday for weapons tests hours after the Russian military complained about the presence of U.S. and other NATO naval ships near
Via Danger Room, David Fulghum has a good post up at Ares on the Russian Air Force. Whatever prep the Army and the Navy may have conducted prior to the beginning of the war, it doesn’t appear that the planning spread to the Air Force. There was apparently no advance recon of Georgian air defenses, […]
I can’t be the only one to think that this cover art is just… fabulous in so many ways. In other stuff that you should be reading: Doug Muir on Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first leader of inde
Via ID, it appears that the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov is deploying from Murmansk to the Mediterranean. The expectation seems to be that she will operate (at least for a short period)
I’m not sure I get all of this handwringing over the NATO response to the war between Russia and Georgia. There is a really simple, clearly understandable explanation for why NATO didn’t come to Georgia’s aid: Georgia isn’t a NATO country. NATO was under no obligation whatsoever to render assistance. If Russia had invaded Estonia […]
A lot of criticism of Georgia’s operational mistakes (as opposed to its basic strategic error) has focused on the failure to blow up Roki Tunnel, which is the only passable route between Russia
For some unfathomable reason I was reading the January 2006 issue of Military History today at the gym, and came upon a pretty good article about the Battle of Suomussalmi, centerpiece of the Winter W
Nexon asks for another assessment of the performance of the Russian and Georgian armed forces. Again, this is very preliminary; the lessons of this war will take a long time to learn and internalize. The Georgians did have some technical advantages, such as nightfighting gear on their tanks and attack aircraft. While this article indicates […]
Russia appears to be displeased about the missile defense deal with Poland: Russia reacted angrily, saying that the move would worsen relations with the United States that have already been strained s
I have an article up at TAP on NATO and the Russia-Georgia war.